The horrific Trump administration in 2025 and the few days of 2026 has attacked so many of our fundamental cherished American ideals. I’ll let Hillary Clinton express just the tip of this ugly iceberg that has struck America during this critical, frightening time. Here is part of her response to Chair of the House Oversight Committee James Comer’s subpoena to testify to Congress about the Epstein files:
“This past year has seen our Government engage in unprecedented acts, including against our own citizens. People have been seized by masked federal agents from their homes, their workplaces, and the streets of their communities. Students and scientists with visas permitting them to study and work here have been deported without due process. The people who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol have been pardoned and called heroes. Agencies vital to the country’s national security have been dismantled. Universities, media companies, and law firms have been subjected to threats to their funding, access, and licensing unless they made concessions and surrendered their right to constitutionally protected free speech. American troops have been deployed on the streets of our towns and cities. The Justice Department has been used as a weapon, at the direction of the President, to pursue political opponents. And most recently and searingly, an ICE agent killed an unarmed mother only days ago.”
READ: Renee Good Was Killed by the Kind of State Violence Our Founding Fathers Warned Against
Hillary left out so much more of the firehose of horrors that has been sprayed on our psyches during the last year, but I am afraid this article would run into the hundreds of pages if I took the time to enumerate each ugly action and statement of this unimaginably foolish, evil, and incompetent administration. What immediately comes to my mind is the pain, misery, and even deaths created by these unempathetic “leaders” when they defunded USAID (which has also lowered the standing of America in the world’s eyes). And then there are the funding cuts to scientific research that will set back the discovery of cures to diseases by decades and drive talented scientists away from our shores. And then there is the incredibly stupid and shortsighted economic policy of tariffs that drives prices up for basic commodities with no other effect other than to make struggling working families more destitute. And then there is the domestic militarization of our National Guard and masked ICE agents turned loose against American cities! As I said, I could go on and on for pages.
I am sorry. I can’t stop. The buffoon in charge has destroyed the West Wing of the White House to build a golden ballroom. If that isn’t a metaphor for this oligarch-friendly attack on America, I don’t know what is. But even more depressing is the rhetoric of the felon America has sadly elected to occupy the office of the president. Doc Rivers captured the horror brilliantly when he expressed deep worry about how children would react to his constant stream of invective and bitter hatred towards his political opponents, often calling us scum and terrorists. Doc bemoaned the fact that the president of the United States was once someone who was a role model for children and was afraid that this bitter old man whose social media posts descend into buffonery, childish nicknames and misspellings could have such a deleterious effect on an entire generation’s conception of what leadership should be.
I think I’ve made my point. I’ll stop my list of horrors. I recently attended two political focus groups where we were asked to express our feelings about the current political climate. Sure enough, I heard a litany of horrors. Some expressed that after they were celebrating the new year of 2026 with the usual optimism, in just a few short hours, the president brought us right back into the depths of despair by launching an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation where dozens of innocent Venezuelans were murdered (adding to the number previously killed in senseless bombing of fishing boats) and by having his masked armed marauders invading the American city of Minneapolis resulting in the murder of a 37-year-old American mother of three children. The rooms were filled with sad Americans who deeply felt the pain that this administration had unleashed upon our beloved country.
I had just finished reading Jill Lepore’s excellent book on the history of our Constitution, We, the People. She painted pictures of the various moral struggles our nation had endured which had resulted in significant change. Yes, we have been here before. For years our nation lived with the ugly blemish of slavery, but good people rose to the occasion and even gave their lives to banish this scourge from our shores. For oh-so-many years, women were not even allowed to participate in our democracy. I heard some fiery women at our meetings who reminded me of strong principled women who fought for and won women’s right to vote at the astoundingly late date of 1920! And then there was the horror of Jim Crow where again good people risked their lives and crossed bridges in the face of armed “protectors of law” to fight for what was right in the American Dream. And they won. And countless decades of hatred and persecution of the LGBTQ community in our land was defeated when those who struggled for equality and acceptance won the right to marry whom they loved. The struggle to realize our American ideals has always been a tough one, but there have been great victories because of people like you who have persisted and brought our vision to reality.
I tried my best to convey this vision of optimism and involvement to the groups where despair and sadness had just been resident. The recent 2025 elections, especially in Bucks County, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia, have shown glimmers of hope that more Americans are becoming dissatisfied with the Republican Party’s ugly, immoral, and ineffectual agenda and actions. Therefore, the American electorate is seeking change.
Recent mass demonstrations, organized by Indivisible and NO KINGS, have been filled with millions of people across the nation in red and blue states alike. After the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis, thousands came out to demonstrate against the cruelty and illegality of ICE as these “protectors of public safety” routinely act against the rule of law, violating due process and our Constitution. Even locally in Bucks County, there is a weekly protest every Friday evening at the office of silent, complicit Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick in Langhorne. The giant of the American people is awakening. And as Hillary has also said in her response to Congress:
“Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences. For us, now is that time.”
So you need to not wallow in the darkness of despair and hopelessness, but instead to join the struggle, as countless Americans have done before since our nation was born, and do what you can to further the cause of truth, justice and the American way for all. Please join this peaceful, democratic struggle in whatever way you can. Help good candidates get elected or run for office yourself. Register young people to vote. Join your local political party or local chapters of organizations which speak out against this lawless administration on social media or in the streets.
The time to act is now. I am looking forward to seeing you on social media, on the streets in peaceful protests, and at the ballot box. With your help, the shining ideals of America will prevail against this passing darkness.
